COMMUNITY COLLEGE NOTEBOOK : Time Off Turns On Lopez’s Desire to Wrestle

Sam Lopez didn’t really want to take off from wrestling last season, but he figured it would be best.

He had planned to attend Fresno State on a wrestling scholarship after graduating from Valencia High School in 1987, but he didn’t do well enough on the Scholastic Aptitude Test to gain admittance to a four-year school.

So Lopez enrolled as a part-time student at Cypress College, but didn’t wrestle for the Chargers. Instead, he was an assistant wrestling coach at Valencia, participated in several freestyle wrestling tournaments and worked to improve his SAT scores. The scholarship offer at Fresno was still waiting.

But Lopez’s SAT scores didn’t improve, although he took the test several times.

So Lopez stayed at Cypress, where he is now a full-time student and a member of the wrestling squad. Lopez has a 16-1 record at 118 pounds, and Cypress (3-0) can clinch the Western State Conference title tonight with a victory over Moorpark (2-0) in a 7:30 match at Cypress.

“I guess it was sort of good I sat out,” said Lopez, 19. “I didn’t win a state title my senior year. I wasn’t in the mood to wrestle after that. I wasn’t hungry.”

Lopez finished fifth in the state as a senior after placing third as a junior.

At Cypress, his goal is to win a state title.

“Nothing in wrestling is a sure bet,” said Ray Haas, Cypress coach. “But Sam certainly has a great chance to win a state title if things go his way.”

Lopez won his first 16 matches before losing for the first time Saturday in the Cerritos tournament.

He trailed Eric LeGarreta of Golden West, 8-7, with 22 seconds left in the 118-pound final. Lopez scored a two-point takedown and appeared to have won, but the clock malfunctioned and it was ruled his takedown came after time ran out.

“It bothered me for about an hour after the match,” Lopez said of the decision. “But it was my fault for being behind that late in the match. I just have to try harder to get ahead early.

“At the end of the year, it will be more important how I did in state anyway. No one will remember the Cerritos tournament by then.”

Water polo: Twelve teams, including five from Orange County, made the Southern California regional water polo playoffs.

Golden West (26-3) is the top-seeded team, Cuesta (26-4) is second, Orange Coast (26-4) third and Long Beach (26-4) fourth. These teams received first-round byes and won’t play until Friday.

Wednesday’s first-round matches: Fullerton (13-8) at Saddleback (18-12) at 5 p.m.; El Camino (3-8) at Cypress (21-8) at 4 p.m.; Grossmont (15-13) at Citrus (21-11) at 3:30 p.m., and San Diego Mesa (15-21) at Palomar (15-17) at 3:30 p.m.

The winners of Wednesday’s four matches advance to Friday’s second round, where they will meet the top four seeded teams at the Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach. The regionals continue Saturday with the third-place match at 6 p.m. and the championship at 7:30 p.m.

The state tournament matches the top four teams from the South and the North on Nov. 17-18 at Belmont Plaza.

Football poll: El Camino (8-0) continues in the top spot of the weekly Southland poll. Riverside (8-0) is second and Bakersfield (6-0-2) third.

Rancho Santiago (7-1) is fourth, Moorpark (7-1) fifth, Ventura (7-1) sixth, L.A. Southwest (6-1-1) seventh, College of the Desert (6-2) eighth, Fullerton (5-3) ninth and Cerritos (5-3-1) 10th.